Hotseat: Rep. Peter Defazio

The Oregon Democrat talks about his disappointment with Obama and the cost of the CRC.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio has held his
Oregon seat in Congress for more than 25 years. The 4th District
Democrat has been a pugnacious progressive, advocating, for example, a
transaction tax on big Wall Street trades.

In
2010, he faced his most serious challenge yet—a well-funded Republican
opponent, Art Robinson, who is again taking on DeFazio in 2012.
Robinson, who finished with 43 percent of the vote, was helped by
attacks on DeFazio, funded by a millionaire hedge fund director.

DeFazio, 65, talked with WW
about working with Tea Party members in Congress, his dissatisfaction
with President Obama, and his connections to the state’s craft brewing
industry.

WW: You’ve been involved with
transportation funding for years. The House under Republican leadership
is holding up what seems to be a basic spending bill.

Peter DeFazio: We had the first-ever partisan
transportation bill since Eisenhower. [Democrats] were not involved in
drafting the House bill. They wouldn’t show it to us. Even though
[Republicans] keep saying, “Oh, we shared with them. They knew
everything.” Bullshit. We didn’t see the bill until the day they
released it. The lobbyists who wrote it had it before we did.

The most prominent
thing was, they wanted to end all federal investment in transit. They
wanted to eliminate all transportation enhancements—pedestrian cycling,
anything that’s an alternative.

The House is no longer doing budget earmarks. What are the odds Congress will approve money for the Columbia River Crossing?

People have been coming in to see me
about this, and I always caution them to be reasonable in their
expectations. But this wasn’t a controlled process. You put the two
state [departments of transportation] in a back room somewhere and said,
“Don’t worry about money, and have at it.” As engineers would do, they
said, “Well, let’s solve every transportation problem in what we
consider, under our standards, to be an optimal way, under a 15-mile
stretch.” When I start hearing prices, I’m like, “Wow, how can it be so
expensive?”

It became clear to me
we aren’t just building the bridge, you’re trying to solve every
problem over a huge stretch. We cautioned them there isn’t going to be
anywhere near that kind of money.

You’ve been critical of President Obama’s approach to economic reform.

The average American would be absolutely right when they
think that for years Congress and the administration have been bought
and paid for by the financial-services industry recovery.

The worst
deregulation was done by Bill Clinton under the leadership of Svengali
[former Treasury Secretary] Robert Rubin. And with his little
acolytes—[Treasury secretaries Timothy] Geithner and [Lawrence] Summers.

Do you have any hope a second Obama administration would appoint new economic advisers?

Many of us advocated for [Nobel
Prize-winning economist Joseph] Stiglitz or [Paul] Krugman. [Obama’s]
rationale was we wanted Geithner because Wall Street’s comfortable with
him. I want someone who Wall Street isn’t comfortable with.

Why does Wall Street have such undue influence in D.C.?

Look at the last seven secretaries of Treasury. Every one
of them until Geithner worked for Goldman Sachs. He regulated Goldman
Sachs—supposedly. Part of it is obviously campaign finance
contributions. There’s total deference.

I’ll
talk to people about my transaction tax, and they will say, “You had
that guy on Wall Street spend all that money against you last
time—should I join your tax?” And I’m like, “It’s the right thing to
do.” There’s fear, but there are a lot of things to fear in the
citizen’s eye. It isn’t just Wall Street.

What’s your overall critique of Obama?

Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe we took some
of his campaign too seriously. We thought we were gonna have a
progressive administration that would begin to undo damage from the
Clinton era, the Bush era and the Reagan era.

Granted,
he was dealt a horrible hand economically. We could have done a lot
better in terms of the stimulus. He just let the Democratic leadership
run wild with stuff that were total turkeys—and then made health care a
priority before economic recovery.

[On] international
stuff, much better. We are no longer a pariah. We have allies. On Iraq,
he delivered on getting us out. Good social policy, obviously. I give
him high grades on dealing with gays and lesbians. Civil rights,
problematic, with the Patriot Act and that kind of stuff.

What’s your favorite Oregon microbrew?

Last night when I got off the airplane and went to the
hotel, on tap they had Terminal Gravity IPA, and then I had a Double
Mountain Red. I had two beers, and then I went to bed.

You’ve brewed your own beer.

Yes, but I haven’t recently. I’ve been
too busy. I’m co-chair of the House craft [brewing] caucus. I’ve been a
keynote at the international draft brewers [convention] three years
running. I’ve developed a following in that community. I was criticized
by my opponent for taking money from big beer executives. That would
include Jamie Floyd from Ninkasi Brewing and Brett [Joyce] from Rogue
and all those other “big” executives who are supporting me.